Faded Photographs
by knowthescore
Summary: Beca has a clothesline full of photos hanging up in her room. Why is our favorite redhead so abhorrent towards taking said photos? Is she, perhaps, waiting to take the perfect picture with her perfect someone? R/R! :)


**A/N:** Tumblr user daanielasm made an awesome photoset on tumblr and I had to write it... Let me know what you think!

* * *

It became a thing.

Every single time any of them hung out, they took pictures with Beca's grandfather's camera.

The Bella's often made excuses to visit her, snatching her camera and bringing it out into the hallway to snap a strip of photos before sneaking back in and putting it back where they found it.

Beca had a sneaking suspicion that they didn't want her to be alone all the time.

They eventually corralled Beca into being in the pictures. It was originally Fat Amy, who dragged Beca out of bed at three in the morning to pose with herself and Stacie. After that, it became a common theme to take pictures with a very reluctant Beca.

Cynthia Rose convinced Beca to hang them in her room.

"C'mon, Becs, it can be like our testament to the Bella's, as we are now."

Beca had given in, but secretly, she hadn't minded the pictures. One night when Jessica was over studying, she had even thanked Beca for documenting 'the happiest year of her life'.

Beca had agreed and returned to studying, but her mind was far away from studying Jason and the Golden Fleece. She glanced up, carefully surveying each photo strip.

Every time over the past few months when Beca had been upset, she looked at those pictures. Whenever she was upset, or angry, or about to give up- she looked at the pictures of these girls, her family, and she knew she was loved. That it would be okay, because there were eight girls who loved her.

Fat Amy, of course, boasted about being in the most pictures. While this was true, she was very closely followed by Lily, who always seemed to turn up when pictures were happening. No one was really sure how, but no one minded much.

In almost every single photo, the girls were just goofing off with each other. There was an entire strip devoted to Ashley fake-stabbing Aubrey. Everyone was genuinely surprised that the Bella's Captain agreed to go along with it.

"Well obviously," she had responded when questioned. "I'm not going to _not_ be part of the Bella photos." She rolled her eyes but laughed when Ashley dramatically re-enacted the photo strip at the end of the rehearsal.

Notably missing from the photos, however, was Chloe.

No one really knew why Chloe wouldn't be in photos. She claimed she was very un-photogenic. Denise had yelled "Girl, please. Don't even play." At the same time Cynthia Rose said "On what alien planet?" Fat Amy took her cue to assure everyone that Chloe would've been worshipped back home, 'despite the fact that she's a ginger.'

Aubrey had reined everyone back to rehearsal then, and the girls dropped the subject quickly to focus on protesting the stadiums Aubrey ordered them to run.

After rehearsal, Beca waited until everyone had cleared out, slowly putting things into her backpack, even dropping her binder at one point, until only she and Chloe were left in the auditorium.

'Hey," Beca called as Chloe turned to leave, "You up to anything? Wanna hang out?"

Chloe turned and smiled that gleaming, heartwarming grin at Beca and happily stated "Yes. You and I are going to hang out in your room."

Beca play-rolled her eyes and linked her arm with Chloe's.

"Well, lead the way, since you seem to know what's happening."

Chloe half-heartedly pushed her.

A few hours later, after watching several episodes of the Golden Girls, Chloe turned contemplatively to Beca. She bit her lip.

"I think we should take a strip together."

Beca nearly spat out her Dr. Pepper.

"I'm sorry, wha-"

"Oh, God, no, I didn't mean- I meant- a photo strip."

This ceased Beca's stuttering, as she didn't want to press whatever weird luck she was having with Chloe agreeing to take pictures.

She scrambled over Chloe's body to reach her grandfather's camera on the shelf where it lived, hidden behind all the photos of the Bella's.

She missed Chloe's sharp intake of breath.

"Okay, do you want to plan these out, or…?"

"Let's just take them. Oh, but, could we have a nice one?" Chloe said, worrying her lip between her teeth, eyes darting everywhere but Beca.

"Yeah, yeah, sure! Let's make that the first one." Beca smiled down at her friend. Chloe had her red hair splayed across Beca's pillow, and she looked…

"_Heavenly._" Beca thought, before shaking her head of the thought.

"_No, not tonight. Do not do anything about these feelings TONIGHT, Mitchell. Pull yourself together, Jesus._"

Beca finished setting up the automatic timer and camera stand, and crawled her way back over to Chloe.

Beca carefully sat propped up against the pillows beside her friend, careful to not lean on or pull her hair.

"Alright, ready to smile? One, two, three!"

The first flash went off.

"You're such a good friend, Beca. I love you lots."

Beca swallowed. "I love you too, Chlo." She turned to kiss Chloe's forehead.

The second flash goes off.

"I, uh… I'm getting my nodes out." Chloe whispered from under Beca's hair.

"You're doing what?!" Beca looked at her, alarmed.

The third flash.

"Yeah. I wanted you to be the first one I told, because you mean so much to me."

"Chloe…"

"Beca."

The fourth.

Before either of them could really register what was happening, they both started to lean in.

Beca was a breath away but held herself back, before Chloe closed the last centimeter and molded their lips together.

Fifth.

Beca realized the flash went off just after it happened, and turned to look.

Chloe grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her back to her mouth.

"Not now." Chloe muttered between kisses. "Later."

Beca pulled back slightly and smiled, teeth and all. Chloe beamed back at her, before leaning up to meet her halfway.

* * *

**A/N:** You guys all rock! Heart!


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